The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for attaching one single piece connector or a plurality of single piece connectors to a flat multiconductor cable which has a plurality of parallel, spaced conductors coated with insulation, with each conductor further being separated from an adjacent conductor by an insulating strip positioned between the conductors. Such flat, multiconductor cable is used in systems where it is necessary to connect various system components, such as printed circuit boards. The single piece connectors are attached at locations along the length of the cable corresponding to the constraints of the system in which it is to be utilized.
In applicant's copending application, Ser. No. 351,595, filed Feb. 23, 1982, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Applying Two Piece Connector Blocks to Multiconductor Cable," which is incorporated herein by reference, an apparatus and method are disclosed for attaching two-piece connectors to flat multiconductor cable. In such apparatus, there is provided a plurality of two-piece connector feed assembly stations where the two-piece connectors are attached to different portions of a cable. Each feed assembly station has a pair of diammetrically opposed cylinders in each of which is slidingly mounted a piston, with each cylinder of each station being separated from the other cylinder by a channel formed in a lower mounting plate, which channel extends in a direction parallel with the width of a cable supplied to the feed stations, so that a carriage mounting a supply of cable may be moved laterally in the cable width direction to any one of the feed assembly stations in any desired, preprogrammable manner. Cable fed to each feed assembly station is positioned between the pair of cylinders, so that when the respective pistons of the cylinders are extended by respective air cylinders, the cable portion positioned at the feed assembly station is sandwiched between the two pistons. Each of the pistons carries half of a two-piece connector to be attached to a cable portion positioned at the feed assembly station, which halves are staked to the conductors of the cable by ramming the pistons toward each other, so that one half of the connector having staking pins thereon pierces through the conductors of the cable portion and into the other mating half of the connector positioned in the other piston. Each piston has a ram head end surface in which is formed a cut-out for mounting differently-sized connector inserts, which hold a respective half of a connector therein for ramming toward the other half to accomplish the attachment of the connector to a cable portion. Each cylinder is further provided with an opening formed in its upper surface so that a storage magazine mounted above the opening will allow one half of a two-piece connector to fall through the opening and into the connector insert of the piston' s ram head end surface. The piston is formed with an upwardly sloping surface from the ram head end surface rearwardly, so that the bottom-most connector half in the magazine rides therealong as the piston is reciprocated by an air cylinder until the rearwardmost retraction of the piston, whence the bottom-most connector half falls into its insert at the ram head end surface of the piston. The length of stroke of each piston's rod is variably controlled to accommodate different cable sizes and different connector types.
In the aforesaid copending application, it is also disclosed that a microprocessor controls the operation of the various control devices by controlling the motor of the carriage moving means and the motor of the cable-advancing drive roller, and the operation of the solenoids of the feed devices' air cylinders. Further, there is also disclosed a separate cutting station where cable lengths may be formed having a pair of ends, which cutting station has a cutting mechanism which cuts a cable at any desired portion, which cutting mechanism has a solenoid also controlled by the microprocessor. Thus, the entire operation of the apparatus is preprogrammable and changeable so that any length of cable may be formed with any number and any type of two-piece connectors. Since each two-piece connector feed assembly station may be provided with a different type of two-piece connector, the number of different types of two-piece connectors that may be attached to a cable length is limited only by the number of such feed assembly stations provided in the apparatus. Further, by interchanging each of the connector halves from one magazine associated with one air cylinder of a feed station to the other magazine of the other air cylinder of the same feed station, the same type of connector may be attached to a cable portion such that it is oriented 180 degrees out of phase relative to another same-type connector attached to another portion of the cable.
In another of applicant's copending application, Ser. No. 490,380, filed May 2, 1983, entitled "Testing Device for Testing the Connections of a Connector and a Cable Portion Attached to the Connector," which is hereby incorporated by reference, there is disclosed a method and system for testing the connections of a connector attached to the conductors of a cable immediately after or during attachment of a connector to a cable. The testing is carried out at each feed assembly station where a connector is attached to the conductors of the cable, and includes, in the case of female connectors, a reciprocably mounted testing plate having a plurality of projection fingers extending toward the connections of the connector attached to a portion of a cable. The projection fingers extend through the ram head end surface of at least one of the pistons of the feed station through holes formed in the ram head end surface, so that when extended, the fingers contact the connections of the connector attached to the conductors of a cable. Each testing projection finger is connected to a testing instrument, as an ampmeter, via a wire lead, so that tests for continuity may be performed. The testing method and system also discloses embodiments for sending a signal along the conductors of the cable so that the testing instrument may test the connections.
As disclosed in the aforesaid application, Ser. No. 490,380, in the case of male connectors which have been attached to a cable portion, the plate member with testing projection fingers is replaced by a plate having a plurality of testing receptacles in which the male contacts of a male connector enter immediately after or during attachment to a cable portion. Each feed station of the apparatus disclosed in applicant's copending application, Ser. No. 351,595, may include a male connector testing device and a female connector testing device, where the male connector testing device is mounted in one cylinder of the feed assembly station, while the female connector testing device is mounted in the other, diametrically opposed cylinder of the feed assembly device, to thus accommodate connectors of the male and female type at each feed assembly station, where their connections may be tested for continuity.
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for automatically attaching at least one single piece connector to a cable length. Whereas the apparatus in applicant's copending application, Ser. No. 351,595, discloses mainly the attachment of two-piece connectors to cable portions, the present invention discloses a method and apparatus for attaching single piece connectors to cable portions. In the instant case, single piece connectors have just one piece, to which the conductors of the cable are staked. Such a single piece connector is shown as prior art in FIGS. 6 and 7 of the instant drawing. In such a single piece connector, each conductor is staked to a staking element mounted in a contact well, each contact well being separated from another by a partition. In order to prepare a cable portion for reception of its conductors in the contact wells of the single piece connector and for staking to the staking elements in the contact wells, the portion is first notched before such reception. Such notching removes the insulating strips between adjacent conductors along a portion of the length of the strips, so that clearance is provided to allow insertion of the conductors at a portion of the cable to receive a single piece connector into the contact wells of the single piece connector.